how to install windows xp on 2 hard drives

[sithlord3k]

Hi,
I just bought a new hard drive the other day, (Seagate Barracuda 80GB drive) and installed Windows XP on. My computer already has a hard drive on it with a copy of Windows XP. The 1st problem I had was that unless I changed the settings from my BIOS, I could only boot from my old drive. So what I did was install partition magic on my drive and bootmagic. The next problem that I had was that Bootmagic only recognised the copy of Windows XP on my old drive. When I highlighted my new drive, it said unknown OS (Operating System). Ithought nothing of this and rebooted my system. My comuter rebooted and a box came up asking which drive (OS) I wanted to boot from. I selected the new drive. The Windows XP loading screen came up, BUT a few seconds later a message came up saying: " autochk not found, skipping autochk". Then another message appeared saying fatal error, system shutting down.
I rebooted with my old drive and that one booted fine. Can anyone tell me what's going on ? I've got a feeling that it has to do with bootmagic not recognising the OS (although it listed both drives, and both drives as primary)

1. Is there an easier way to install Windows XP on both drives, and boot from whichever drive I want, without having to change the BIOS every time.
or
2. How can I do it using bootmagic


I know that this is a long read, but thank you to anyone who even bothered to read it.

[confus-ed]

So welcome to windrivers sithlord3k.

First before I attempt an answer ... err WHY ? (why do you want two installs of xp that is on the same pc ? )

[sithlord3k]

I want to do this so that my family has a hard drive for themselves, while I have one for my self, and I love XP !

BTW, thanks 4 the welcome !

[confus-ed]

Right well you don't need any third party software to do that, just do an install, then do another one this time pointing at your second disk, then when you restart each time you should get a little menu come up asking which install you want to use, I'd suggest all you need to tinker with is the descriptions of the two installs so that the differences are more clear than two virtually identical descriptions, make the one for your family the top 'default' choice, & set a 'short' time limit so that unless you choose otherwise it'll 'fall through' onto the family copy 'usually' & when you want to use your own install, you can just tab down ..

Installing more than one operating system on your computer (for reference).

You may care to hide your disk from your family too, to stop them inadvertantly installing stuff on your disk.

I've assumed you know how to do some things there, so if you have more questions then ask

[sithlord3k]

2 Problems

1. I already have xp installed on my old drive and don't want to re install it

"You may care to hide your disk from your family too, to stop them inadvertantly installing stuff on your disk."

2. How do I hide my new drive from my family ???

[confus-ed]

1. Don't have to, just make another install on your new disk, its all on that link somewhere, I think ..

2. the simplest method is to use fat on 'their' drive & ntfs on yours & add a logon , they have to be 'techie' really to even get to your drive {FAT file system can't read ntfs but ntfs can read fat}.

[TechZ]

I keep two installs of Xp on my HDD, keep two partitions, and make one inaccessible from the other partition. Works very well.

[confus-ed]

I keep two installs of Xp on my HDD, keep two partitions, and make one inaccessible from the other partition. Works very well.

That's very similar, here he has two physically seperate disks instead of 'pretending' he has with partitions (so same net result), of course if profiling worked 'good' folks wouldn't ask about this stuff

[TechZ]

he could do the same, deny access to the hdd that he doesnt want others to access.

[confus-ed]

he could do the same, deny access to the hdd that he doesnt want others to access.

There's a few ways to deny access besides how I mentioned, I just did the no cost & simple one, where there's physical access they can all be gotten around btw, but I don't think here he needs secure, just simple & reasonably reliable, he could use disk quotas, but that takes a bit of explaining , or more 'techie' devilment to achieve what he wants..

[sithlord3k]

2. the simplest method is to use fat on 'their' drive & ntfs on yours & add a logon , they have to be 'techie' really to even get to your drive {FAT file system can't read ntfs but ntfs can read fat}.

If I was to use fat on their drive, wouldnt that mean formatting the disk, as I already have it as NTFS ??? - which leads to losing the data already there.